Bat Shift Crazy: An Ex-Shifter turned Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy (The Legend of Nyx Book 2)

by Theophilus Monroe

  Devin slid off his pants, took off his shirt, and slid into bed in nothing but his boxers. I spooned up behind him, draped my arm across his body, and surprisingly, fell right asleep.

  Chapter five

  A ray of sunlight, blasting through a crack between the curtains, startled me awake. I looked around. Devin wasn't there. I rolled out of bed and slid into a pair of sweats.

  "Devin?" I asked, stumbling out into the living room.

  "Not here!" Donnie shouted from the bathroom. Donnie, a trans woman like me, had helped me adjust to my new life after I first found myself stuck in human form. She was the only human, aside from the folks at the Order, who knew the truth about what I was. She was also one of only a few people who knew about my late-night vampire hunting obsession.

  I walked back into the bedroom and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. Nothing so much as a text message from Devin about where he'd gone. Probably didn't want to wake me up. Besides, I'd told him the night before not to go anywhere without me. It wasn't safe.

  "Holy crap," I said to myself as I noticed the time. I'd slept most of the next day away. It was already the middle of the afternoon. And it was a Saturday. I had a show later that night.

  "Donnie," I said, sauntering into the bathroom. "Where the hell did Devin go?"

  "Said he had something to get from his mom's house. He insisted I let you sleep as long as you needed."

  I nodded. "Did Devin tell you about last night?"

  "Only that you killed it on stage. You and Gina, both."

  I pressed my lips together. Devin hadn't told her about the vampire or the bat thing. Good thing. I could tell Donnie anything, really. But the less she knew, in most instances, the better. Vampires will use that sort of thing against you if they have the opportunity. And Donnie knew to text me 911 if she ever going into any vampire-related trouble. She was kind enough, worked as a junior pharmacist, and slowly built herself a life with her new beau. While he hadn't yet moved in with us, he was there often enough he had his own toothbrush in the bathroom drawer.

  "What are you getting all dressed up for?" I asked.

  "Caleb wants to take me out tonight. He'll be here in about an hour to pick me up."

  Donnie had been dating Caleb for almost six months. Despite being near twice her age, since she was only twenty-three in human years, I had to admit that he was remarkably handsome.

  Who was I to judge the age disparity? I mean, Devin was barely twenty-one, and I had a few centuries on him. The nice thing about being a former shape-shifting elemental. We age well.

  That didn't mean I couldn't give Donnie shit about it.

  "You guys have a hot canasta date?" I asked as Donnie powdered her cheeks.

  "Bitch, please," Donnie said. "We're going to Bingo night at the Elks club."

  "Bullshit," I said, leaning on the vanity. "What are you guys really doing tonight?"

  Donnie shrugged. "Heading to the Plaza. He's going to take me on one of those romantic chariot rides. Then, we might snag some Jack Stack barbecue."

  "Color me jealous!" I said. The fact Kansas City was famous for its barbecue made my transition from eating humans to eating foods acceptable to humans much easier than it could have been. "Bring me home some burnt ends."

  "I'm not hauling around your to-go order all night. Pick some up yourself."

  I stuck out my bottom lip. "Donnie! Pleeeease?"

  "You have your own Jack Stack in Lee's Summit, a couple miles from Nicky's. You can get your own before your show."

  I sighed. "Fine. Bitch."

  "Ho!"

  "Slut!"

  Donnie started laughing. "At least I give my man the nookie. You keep holding out on that boy, I'm telling you, honey, you're going to lose him."

  I shrugged. "Our connection is deeper than that."

  Donnie cocked her head and raised one eyebrow. "You might not have the same urges we do, you know, since you skipped puberty. But a man has needs, honey."

  I sighed. "I wouldn't know what to do. The Neck don't mate for pleasure. It sort of happens, by accident, when their essences collide in the current."

  "Then stop over-thinking it, honey. Let it happen by accident. Just do what comes naturally."

  I snorted. "But what if I suck at it?"

  "I think he'd like you to suck on it!"

  "Shut up!" I said, putting my hands on my hips. "You seriously do that with Caleb? I mean, doesn't he pee out of that thing?"

  "You don't think about that when you're doing it," Donnie said. "Once you try it, trust me, you'll love it."

  "I doubt that," I said. "Does Caleb even return the favor?"

  "Mmhmm. But it's not like exchanging favors, Nicky. It's not a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours sort of thing. Though, now that I think about it... my nails down his back last night... I think I broke the skin."

  "He's so old!" I said. "Aren't you afraid you're going to break him?"

  "Honey, you know what they say about older men, right?"

  I nodded. "You've told me before. They're like fine wine. They only get better with age."

  "Once you go grey, you'll never go gay!"

  I cocked my head. "No one says that. Besides, so long as I've known you, you've never been into women. So, you aren't gay anyway."

  Donnie shrugged. "You haven't always known me. I had a confused phase, you know when I was younger. I dated a few girls back in High School."

  "What?" I asked. "Seriously?"

  "Back when I was still trying to be what everyone told me I was supposed to be."

  "You mean, a male?" I asked.

  Donnie nodded. "Had the prettiest girl in the school. No one understood why I broke up with her. But I only went out with her because, well, I was supposed to. I mean, the prettiest girl in school shows interest in you, you'd be an idiot to turn her down. Most the boys thought so, anyway."

  I bit my lip. "So when did you realize you liked men?"

  Donnie shrugged. "When I finally embraced my truth. When I started living as a woman. Everything else fell into place. It felt natural to me."

  I shook my head. "I don't know what's natural. I know I'm attracted to Devin. But all that intimate stuff. I don't know. None of it feels natural."

  "Because you haven't tried it!" Donnie said, shaking her head. "Trust me, nothing about your first time feels natural at first. But once you give in to it, once you get out of your head about it and give yourself permission to enjoy that hunk of a man's body..."

  "Permission? That doesn't make any sense. It isn't like I'm forbidding myself from doing it."

  "Aren't you?" Donnie asked. "What's stopping you, then?"

  I sighed. "I wish I knew."

  "You know, Nicky. For someone who has so much confidence on stage, who can go toe-to-toe with vampires without batting an eye, you're awfully insecure."

  "Am not!" I protested.

  Donnie nodded. "Yeah. You are. Look, Nicky. It doesn't matter if you aren't good at it your first time. No one is."

  "I was damn good at it the first time I took the stage!"

  "Yeah," Donnie said. "But you'd been singing your whole, prior, existence. What about the first time you hunted a vampire?"

  I chuckled. "I was a nervous little bitch!"

  "Like you are about sleeping with Devin. A nervous little bitch. Not nervous about hunting vamps anymore, though, are you? How'd you get over that?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know. Each vampire I staked, it got a little easier."

  "It's the same way with a man, honey. It will get easier, but you have to get past those initial nerves and try it! Pretty soon, believe me, you'll like it. You'll love it. Like you love singing, like you love hunting."

  I scratched my head. "Maybe it's because I'm not human. Maybe my body doesn't work like yours."

  "Nicky, you eat human food. You love barbecue like I do. You shit like I do. You don't breathe underwater. You breathe air. So far, in every way that matters, you are human like the rest of us."

>   Yeah, I thought. And the rest of you humans don't compulsively shift into a bat form either. I focused, instead, on something else. "I don't bleed like you do. I bleed water."

  "But you still bleed," Donnie said. "You're telling yourself you won't enjoy it with Devin because you're too damn afraid."

  "Afraid of what?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair.

  "Of being vulnerable," Donnie said. "You're afraid that if you give yourself to him in that way, you'll get hurt."

  "How do you know I won't be?" I asked.

  "I don't," Donnie said. "But until you take that risk, you'll never get the reward. You're denying yourself one of the most beautiful things about being human."

  I raised my eyebrow. "More beautiful than burnt ends at Jack Stack?"

  "Trust me," Donnie said. "As good as barbecue is, it isn't half as good as that."

  Chapter six

  Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing (I Believe in Miracles)" sounded from my phone. Devin's ring tone.

  "What the hell, Devin," I said, picking up the phone. "I told you we needed to stick together."

  "I know," Devin said, his voice shaky as he was gasping for air. "Nicky, I need you."

  "What happened?"

  "It's my mom... the vampires. They came after her!"

  "Is she okay?" I asked.

  "I don't think she's breathing. My God, Nicky... she's so white. I don't think she has any blood in her body at all!"

  "Is she still warm?" I asked.

  "A little," Devin said. "I'm going to try and heal her. I think I know a spell."

  "Devin, don't," I snapped. "If you do that, she'll wake up a vampire!"

  "I'm sorry, Nicky. It's my mom. I just lost my dad. I can't lose her, too."

  "Please, Devin, listen to me. She wouldn't want that!"

  No reply.

  "Devin... Devin, hello?"

  Damnit. He hung up.

  I called him back. No answer.

  "Fuck!" I shouted, quickly slipping on my nearest pair of heels. "Donnie, I'm leaving... Devin's in trouble."

  "Alright," Donnie shouted from the bathroom, calmer than she should have been. She was used to this sort of thing. Par for the course when your roommate's a vampire hunter, I suppose. "Go save your man!"

  I threw on a t-shirt. It was probably the worst ensemble I'd ever put together. Heels with sweats and a t-shirt? Whatever. I had to get to Devin as soon as possible.

  I ran out of the apartment and down the stairs to where I had my bike parked. A Thruxton RS. I mounted it and turned the ignition, and, helmet laws be damned, I peeled out, through the side streets, and onto Interstate-70. Debbie Miller, Devin's mom, lived near the Legends—a complex on the other side of the state line with a racetrack, the Sporting KC soccer stadium, a water park, an outdoor shopping complex, and a giant furniture store. A fifteen-minute drive, give or take, depending on traffic.

  I'd make it in less time than that. I wove between cars on the highway. People honked. More than a few probably flipped me off as I buzzed past them at a hundred miles an hour. If Devin healed his mom, and she'd been drained of most of her blood after being bitten, she'd turn into a vampire. She wouldn't want that. As the widow of one of the Order's former leaders and most accomplished hunters, I imagined, she'd rather die than become a bloodsucker. But Devin wasn't thinking. He was panicking. This was his mom, after all. Sure, the woman didn't approve of some of his life choices—his relationship with me, most of all—but he still loved his mom.

  I couldn't relate entirely. I didn't have parents, at least not in the traditional sense. Not any I ever knew. The Neck, when they reproduce, do so almost by accident. They collide in the waters, and their essences mingle, creating offspring. Then, they go on their miserable ways without giving their child a second thought.

  I knew, though, that for humans, a child's bond with his mother is something sacred. No matter how complicated Devin's relationship with his mom was, he'd do anything to save her.

  But he wasn't saving her. He was damning her to an existence she'd never want. To a mode of living that isn't living at all.

  I pulled up next to the Miller residence. It wasn't the home Devin was raised in. It was a house the Millers built only a few years ago. It was more than a widow needed. But Debbie built the place with her late husband, Tom. She wasn't ready to let it go.

  I leaped off my bike and ran toward the front door of the house. The door swung open just as I turned the knob, almost knocking me off the porch. Debbie, her eyes red and her face in a rage, ran right through me, pushing me aside and sending me tumbling into the yard. She had a large blanket over her head, shielding herself from the sun. It wouldn't be enough. Not for long.

  I felt a tingle, the same sensation I'd felt before I'd shifted into a bat. But as Devin's mom took off down the sidewalk, the feeling faded.

  I was too late. She'd already turned. A newly turned vampire, compelled by an uncontrollable thirst, will stop at nothing to feed. I wasn't an option. But Devin...

  I sprung back to my feet and ran through the door. Devin was sitting on the floor, his knees tucked around his body, in tears.

  I rested my hand on his shoulder. I checked his neck. A vampire's bite usually heals quickly after a bite. But not that quick. It looked like his mom at least had enough wits about her to refrain from biting her son.

  "Are you alright?" I asked.

  Devin shook his head as he wept. "I know I shouldn't have, but Nicky, I had to. I couldn't let her die."

  "I know," I said. "She's your mom."

  "She's going to hate me for this."

  I sighed. "Again, Devin. She's your mom. She might not always approve of your choices, but she does love you. That won't change. The fact she didn't bite you proves it. Nothing short of love could prevent a youngling from feeding on the first human she found."

  Devin sighed. "Can you find her?"

  I nodded. "I can. And I will."

  "Please, Nicky. Before she hurts someone."

  "Devin, you need to get out of here. It isn't safe."

  Devin nodded as he handed me a crumpled-up piece of paper.

  "What is this?" I asked.

  "A note. I think it's from the vampire who bit her."

  "Give yourself to us. Or more will die," I said, reading it aloud.

  "They want me," Devin said. "Or they'll keep killing people I care about."

  "It's been a few hours now since sunrise. The vampire who did this must've bitten her before. It's a miracle she wasn't completely dead already when you got here."

  "I'll be fine," Devin said. "Like you said, it's the middle of the day. They won't be back for a while. Please, go get my mom. She's out in the sunlight, and that blanket won't protect her for long. And once she realizes what happened—"

  "Don't go there, Devin. She covered herself with a blanket, so she was trying to protect herself. She can't go far. I will find her."

  Devin wiping a drip of snot from his nose with his shirt. "Thank you,"

  I nodded and turned. I took a deep breath. With my keen sense of smell, I can usually detect a vampire if there's one nearby. But newly turned vamps, it takes a while before their new nature totally takes hold. Before the odor sets in. I couldn't smell her. But she still had to be nearby.

  A high-pitched scream came from a house down the street.

  I wasn't exactly sure which house it came from, but I knew the direction the scream had come from.

  I ran down the sidewalk. Two houses down, the door was wide open. That had to be it.

  I charged inside, using my enhanced speed to get there before...

  I saw Devin's mom, her fangs sunk into the neck of a middle-aged woman. The same tingle I felt before started to well up in my frame. I took a deep breath and focused my mind.

  Not now, Nicky...

  As Debbie drank the woman's blood, the victim's eyes were rolled back in her head. I grabbed Debbie and pulled her off of her neighbor, throwing her as hard as I could into the wall. The
woman fell to the floor.

  I could only hope she hadn't drained the poor woman of too much blood.

  I didn't have any stakes. So, I did what I often had to do in such situations. I removed one of my heels and, as Debbie got to her feet, I staked her with my stiletto.

  Debbie gasped. I caught her as her body collapsed. Devin might not be thrilled I staked his mom, but once we removed my heel from her heart, she'd come to. It was the only real option I had. I kicked off my second shoe as the tingle in my body subsided. I exhaled. That was close.

  After laying Debbie's body on the floor, I checked on her victim. The woman still had a pulse. She'd survive. She'd be traumatized. Debbie would probably have to move. But physically speaking, the woman would be fine.

  I looked around the room. The blanket Debbie had used to shield herself from the sun before was crumbled on the floor by the front door. I spread out the blanket, picked up Debbie, and laid her on it, rolling her up. I threw Debbie over my shoulder and carried her back to the Miller residence.

  "That was fast," Devin said. "You staked her?"

  "Sorry," I said. "I didn't have any other options."

  "I understand," Devin said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

  "She already fed," I said. "Thankfully, she didn't totally drain her victim. I think the woman will be fine. But I don't think your mom will be able to go back home anytime soon. Not after assaulting her neighbor."

  "Can we take her to the apartment?" Devin asked.

  I shook my head. "I'd rather not. I don't like bringing vamps home. It could put Donnie in danger."

  Devin bit his lip. "Can we take her to Nicky's?"

  I nodded. "I'll put her in your passenger seat and follow you there. We need to get out of here."

  Chapter seven

  We strapped Debbie to one of the stainless steel embalming tables that Alice left behind in the basement at Nicky's. Newly turned vamps can be unpredictable. She'd just fed, but chances were, she was still craving more blood. After a vampire turns, it takes several feeds before they can begin to gain a semblance of control over their bloodthirst.